5 years ago...

By Vichara

5 years ago my sister passed away from a form of cancer that became her constant companion for about 6 years. While for some this would turn their lives into a dark downward spiral, my sister recognized the severity of the situation and still carries on with her good-hearted nature. She used the suspected time that she was given, not to mope and complain, but to engage and inspire. It would take pages to account the number of selfless, kind and sometimes-anonymous acts she did during her last years. While not exactly an inspirational thought for the morning it is a reminder, one that she would agree and approve of, that we don’t really get to do over yesterday, but we can try to make today much better. Through at least one selfless act for someone else try to make this a better world with the time we have left here.

girandole • \JEER-un-dohl\ • noun
1 : a radiating and showy composition (as a cluster of skyrockets fired together)
*2 : an ornamental branched candlestick
3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece
Example Sentence:
"I sat in my usual nook, and looked at him with the light of the girandoles on the mantelpiece beaming full over him…." (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)
Did you know?
The earliest uses of "girandole" in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework or to something, such as a fountain, with a radiating pattern like that of a firework. Such a pattern is reflected in the word’s etymology: "girandole" can be traced back, by way of French and Italian, to the Latin word "gyrus," meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." By the 18th century "girandole" was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. The word’s third sense, referring to a kind of earring, did not appear in English until the 19th century.